- Quinn: I was the greatest threat the Continuum had ever known. They feared me so much, they had to lock me away for eternity, and when they did that, they were saying that the individual's rights will be protected only so long as they don't conflict with the state. Nothing is so dangerous to a society.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Based on my research, you have been many things - a rude, interfering, inconsiderate, sadistic...
- Q: You've made your point.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: ...pest - and, oh, yes, you introduced us to the Borg, thank you very much - but one thing you have never been is a liar.
- Q: I think you've uncovered my one redeeming virtue. Am I blushing?
- Lieutenant Tuvok: I am curious. Have the Q always had an absence of manners, or is it the result of some natural evolutionary process that comes with omnipotence?
- Quinn: I'm sorry to disappoint you, Captain, but I would only have been pretending to fit into this mortal existence. This is my final gift to my people. Oh... tell them those were my last words. I dearly thank you, for making this p... poss...
- [dies]
- [Quinn has made Q disappear, apparently]
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: What did you do to him?
- Quinn: Nothing. He's still there in the 24th century. I just took the rest of us to an old hiding place of mine.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Report.
- Ensign Harry Kim: Captain, there are no stars outside.
- Quinn: Well, that's partially accurate. Actually, there's no universe outside.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: On screen.
- [seen: an explosion outside the ship]
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Commander?
- Cmdr. Chakotay: I'm showing a large buildup of baryonic particles.
- Quinn: Perfectly normal.
- Lieutenant Tuvok: Captain, based on our readings, it appears we've been transported back in time to the birth of the universe.
- Quinn: VERY old hiding place.
- Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres: This ship will not survive the formation of the cosmos.
- Q: Yes, but just think of the honor of having your DNA spread from one corner of the universe to the other. Why, you could be the origin of the humanoid form.
- Q: Without Q, there would have been no William T. Riker at all, and I would have lost at least a dozen really good opportunities to insult him over the years.
- [Q has provided Quinn with poison to facilitate the latter's suicide]
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: I imagine the Continuum won't be very happy with you, Q.
- Q: I certainly hope not.
- [in the attempt to commit suicide, Q has accidentally made all the men on Voyager disappear]
- Quinn: Well, that's that, I'm afraid. They're gone.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Gone? Where?
- Quinn: [shrugs] Just... gone. Oh, I apologize for the inconvenience.
- Isaac Newton: Why are you dressed like this, young man?
- Maury Ginsberg: Man, have you looked in a mirror lately?
- Q: May I see you in your chambers, Captain?
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: You've been in my chambers enough for one visit, sir.
- Q: [on Quinn] By demanding to end his life, he taught me a little something about my own. He was right when he said the Continuum scared me back in line. I didn't have his courage or his convictions. He called me irrepressible. This was a man who was truly irrepressible. I only hope I make a worthy student.
- Q: Say, is this a ship of the Valkyries or have you human women finally done away with your men altogether?
- Q: Let's celebrate, just you and me - the two of us.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: What?
- Q: I'll take you home. Before you know it, you'll be scampering across the meadow with your little puppies, the grass beneath your bare feet. A man coming over the hill, way in the distance, waves to you. You run to be in his arms, and as you get closer, you see that it's... me!
- Quinn: At the beginning of the new era, life as a Q was a constant dialogue of discovery and issues and humor from all over the universe, but look at them now. Listen to their dialogue now.
- Lieutenant Tuvok: I'm afraid I cannot hear any.
- Quinn: Because it has all been said. Everyone has heard everything, seen everything; they haven't had to speak to each other in ten millennia. There's nothing left to say.
- [Janeway, Tuvok and the Qs have transported to the Continuum, represented by a roadhouse on a desert road]
- Lieutenant Tuvok: Then what is the purpose of the road?
- Quinn: The road... takes us to the rest of the universe, then it leads back here. An endless circle.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: This was your existence before your confinement?
- Quinn: I traveled the road many times, sat on the porch, played the games, been the dog, everything. I was even the scarecrow for a while.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Why?
- Quinn: Because I hadn't done it.
- Quinn: You mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what The Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to life-forms without your technical expertise. It's no different with us. We may appear omnipotent to you but, believe me, we're not.
- Quinn: In a way, our vulnerability is what this is all about. As the Q have evolved, we've sacrificed many things along the way, not just manners but mortality and a sense of purpose and a desire for change and a capacity to grow. Each loss is a new vulnerability, wouldn't you say?
- Quinn: You want me to prove to you that I suffer in terms that you can equate with pain or disease. Look at us. When life has become futile, meaningless, unendurable, it must be allowed to end. Can't you see, Captain? For us, the disease is immortality.
- Quinn: You see, Captain, Q rebelled against this existence by refusing to behave himself. He was out of control. He used his powers irresponsibly and all for his own amusement, and he desperately needed amusement because he could find none here at home.
- [Janeway suggests a hearing]
- Q: A hearing? You would have me put his future into your delicate little hands? Oh!... so touchably soft. What is your secret, dear?
- Q: You could live a perfectly normal life if you were simply willing to live a perfectly normal life.
- [Janeway suggests a hearing]
- Q: All right, I accept on behalf of the Continuum on one condition - if you rule in our favor, Q agrees to return to his confinement.
- Quinn: I have a condition of my own. If you rule in MY favor, then the Continuum must grant me mortality.
- Q: Why? So you can kill yourself?
- Quinn: Exactly.
- Q: Accepted.
- [to Janeway]
- Q: Well, this is going to make for an amusing diversion: Will you send him to prison for eternity or will you assist in his suicide plan? That's a toughie - but then again that's why they made you captain, isn't it, to handle the real tough ones? My, my. Now I guess we get to find out whether the pants...
- [checks out Janeway's bottom]
- Q: ... really fit.
- Quinn: Captain, you're an explorer. What if you had nothing left to explore? Would you want to live forever under those circumstances?
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Now a what?
- Lt. Tom Paris: Checking. We seem to be tethered to some sort of... plant.
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: On screen.
- [sees a narrow image]
- Captain Kathryn Janeway: Computer, I need a wider angle.
- [Q picks up Voyager like it was an ornament]
- Q: [Q appears on screen] You can't hide from me Q.
- Quinn: And you can't take me by force. I'll stalemate you for eternity if I have to!